About

Medieval Siege Weapons

This is a brief paragraph or two on each of the major siege weapons. For the not just the besiegers but also the defenders. Please note most of these weapons were not used alone and often had many different versions of the same weapon.KNIGHTAt age seven a son of a noble family was sent to a nobleman or lord, often who was a relative. Here he was a page and taught how to ride a horse, and his manners. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a knight. As the squire to the knight he would take care of his horse, help him put the knights armor on and keep it clean. In turn he was taught how to use a bow, carve meat, and other knightly skills. The squire would have to go into battle with the knight to help him when he was wounded or unhorsed. If the squire was successful he would be knighted at the age of 21. When there wasn't a war going on knight would have to practice, practice, and practice some more. They would wrestle, fight with blunt swords, do acrobatics, and also do sports like javelin and putting which is throwing a heavy stone as far as you can. Experienced knights would participate in tournaments held by the king. The winner would usually just get bragging rights and sometimes a sum of money. The most common event was jousting. Jousting is a sport where to fully armored knights ride at each other on horses while aiming a long wooden lance at the each other. With speeds reaching 60 miles per hour sometimes there could be fatal accidents. If the person was knocked off the other was victorious.CATAPULTSThe catapult, was invented by the Romans, and plays a large role in the siege of any castle. Besiegers could fire 100-200 pound stones up to 1,000 feet. The catapult was used to destroy buildings and walls inside and outside of the castle walls, it could also destroy an enemies moral by throwing severed heads of comrades, they could spread disease by throwing shit and dead animals in, and they could destroy...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...The Weapons of the Crusades
Guy Steuart
4/20/13
War in Society
Dr. Jobin
The Crusades were extremely violent times. With constant pressure to take back the holy city, armies were constantly fighting and killing. They were also always trying to find better and more efficient ways to fight and kill. Old weapons were engineered to be more destructive, new weapons were invented to destroy the ever-advancing technology in fortification. The three main categories of weaponry that were most important to the crusades were foot soldiers, knights, and siegeweapons.
One of the many siegeweapons used during the crusades was the Trebuchet. It was extremely important to sieges and resembles the catapult, however the trebuchet was more complicated, intercut and damaging than its close relative. The trebuchet used a sling attached on one end to a wooden beam with a heavy weight at the other end of the beam. The beam was fixed at the top of two vertical supported arms to balance the horizontal, elevated beam. The trebuchet was loaded using a crank and pulley system to lower the sling side of the beam and raise the heavy weight side. Then the rope holding down the sling side was loosed which, in turn, would drop the weight causing the sling attached to the arm to quickly raise up releasing the projectile. The trebuchet had a very versatile arsenal, it was capable of...

...Weapons and Arms in the Middle Ages
In my observations of the Medieval time period I found the weapons to be brutal, and atrocious. From war hammers to napalm to the arquebus, this was by far the most in-humane advancement in weapons apart from modern day. The Medieval time went from about the 11th century to the 14th. During this time survival depended on the power of the certain ruler people served under. The power of the ruler depended directly upon his army and the army upon their weapons. This is why we see such rapid advancement of the weapons in Medieval times. In this time "might" was right. "A knight or any other warrior is only as effective as his skills and the quality of his weapons" (MedievalWeapon Links). This paper will cover the making and use of a broad range of weapons used from about 1000-1400 A.D.
Good weapons were a necessity in the medieval times. The making of these weapons relied strongly upon the areas local blacksmith. The blacksmith was often the most skilled man in the kingdom. He made everything from nails, to shoes for horses, to weapons. The making of medievalweapons was particularly hard. Although iron was a fairly easy metal to work with, it had a fairly high melting point...

...Medieval European Warfare
Weapons
In early to mid Medieval Europe, the armies had nothing very complicated. The nobles had solid iron weapons, and the not as rich had brass coated in iron. There was the lance, the spear, the pike, throwing axe, battle axe, short sword, the horsebow, the longsword, broadsword, dagger, shortbow, longbow, crossbow, mallet, mace, greatsword, serrated sword, halberd, throwing knives, and the wrist knife. The lance, dagger, longsword, and horse bow were generally used by cavalry. The lance, battle axe, longsword, broadsword, dagger, mace, greatsword, and the halberd were used by men-at-arms, or knights. The serrated sword, throwing daggers, shortbow, and wrist knife were used by assasins. The longbow, mallet, mace, and battle axe were used by English yeomen. Infantry used the halberd, pike, spear, and broadsword. Swiss infantry especially used the pike and halberd.
In the 12th century, the Chinese invention of gunpowder reached Europe. Everybody immediately began developing weapons with it. The French invented the cannon and firearm, making France a major power with England and also lead to the downfall of many lesser nobles who couldn't afford cannon-proof fortifications. Castles were expensive anyway (as much as 13,000,000 ducats) so the lesser nobles could barely afford a regular castle(considering a king got 12 million ducats a year).
The weapons used...

...
Mrs. Snyder
Honors English 12
Little Stirrup Big Impact
In Europe during the Medieval Period there were many misfortunes, such as famine, plague, and war. One third of the population of Europe died from the Black Plagues alone and war sprung from controversy within the Catholic Church. The warrior of the Early Middle Ages behaved like a barbarian, but his role became a more honorable one during the Medieval Period as he evolved into the armored knight on horseback with a code of moral values (Zohorsky 10). Over the years society was transformed as well by cultural and technological developments. Advancements surrounding the horse changed life for knights in Europe in regards to war and sport. The changes made impacted the future immensely and are still used today.
Horses started to be domesticated around 6000 B.C. long before the Middle Ages. Up until the Middle Ages the only advancement to the horse had been the saddle (Derby). Knights of this time period fought as soldiers for their kingdom. The war strategy for knights was to attack and retreat. They would use horses to do this because horses were much faster than being of foot. The stirrup is a small metal and leather foot piece that is connected to the saddle. No one clearly knows when or where the stirrup originated from, but experts say it came from Northern China thousands of years before the Middle Ages (Dien 35). When this improvement to the saddle came to Europe it...

...Ancient siegeweapons
Onager (siegeweapon)
1. A round stone (often clay balls with combustible substance in them, which explode on impact and burst into flames) is put in the pouch and the arm is winched down.
2. The onager's framework is made out of two beams from oak, which curve into humps. In the middle they have quite large holes in them, in which strong sinew ropes are stretched and twisted. A long arm is then inserted between the bundles of rope; at its end it has a pin and a pouch. It strikes on a huge buffer with a sack stuffed with fine chaff and secured by tight binding.
3. The master artilleryman strikes the pin with a hammer and the stone is launched towards its target.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onager_(siege_weapon)
Hybrid mangonel-trebuchet
1. Around stone around a 50-100kg
2. The hybrid mangonel-trebuchet might be loaded by lowering a rope with a hook at its end; this hook was tied to another rope connected to a pulling to pull the rope and lower the main beam. Once the beam was lowered a few workers were responsible for the attachment of a sling where the projectile was placed.
3. When the mangonel was loaded the leader gave the order to release the main rod, and at the same time several men (usually around 20) pulled the ropes attached to the counterweight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangonel
Flame-throw
1. The purpose was to light up/burn people or wood...

...﻿ Page 1
English 100
2 November 2014
Stressful Jobs
Stress is a major factor in every job. All jobs have stress no matter what they are. Some jobs have more stress then others and some have less depending on the opinion of the worker. There’s also a lot of reasons for stress some examples would be shifts, money, customers and coworkers. All the examples are reasons for stress at my past jobs and present employer. Every person will experience some degree of stress in his or her life. Stress can be healthy. Stress can make a person feel hopeless, helpless, and powerless. Some people face stress more than others do. College students deal with stress each stage of courses, and work is a big reason for this.
A main reason that causes me stress at work is shifts. We have shifts for the morning, mid-day, and night. I work at the Chick-Fil-A on State Street. On the weekends I get morning shifts and I like it because I have the rest of the day to do stuff although I have to wake up early but that’s the only bad thing about morning shifts. Although most of the week I get closing shifts, closing are stressful because we have to worry about the dinner rush and cleaning everything for the morning crew. Also not having a car and not living in the same area of my job is stressful because I need to catch the bus and if I work late I could possibly miss the last bus. Work related stress has been emerging as one of the main causes of mental health in today’s
Page 2...

...Araspreet Kaur February 19, 2013
Mr. Sakowich Period 7
Medieval Churches
The Medieval Church had a large role in the Middle Ages and everyone's daily life revolved around the church. In the Middle Ages, when there was a weakened government, the church rises in power and becomes more of a political role. The church had all control over the people. Peasants worked for no pay on the church land. Also, the church didn't pay any taxes which saved them a lot of money making them more wealthy than any king of England at this period of time. Some of the money the church received was spent to build cathedrals, churches and monasteries, and by constructing these buildings, it showed the church's wealth.
The church dominated everyone's life hence why all the medieval people believed that God, Heaven and hell existed. All people were taught that the only way they could possibly get their entry to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church allowed them too. Everyone was afraid of Hell and people were told of the terrible things waiting for them in Hell in the weekly services. On the church land, peasants worked for free leaving them less time for them to work on their own lands on their farms to provide for their family. Peasants was required to pay 10% of what they earned in a year through taxes also called tithes to the church. Tithes could be paid in two ways which were either money or in goods produced by the peasant...

...The Medieval Period lasted from the 10th century to the 17th century; this was the time of castles. The word castle is derived from the Latin word castellum which means fort. Castles still stand today as one of the most magnificent structures ever built. Not only are people fascinated with their grand splendor, but with their luminous presence of authority. Castles were not built for defense alone; they were symbols of social status, wealth, power, and intimidation. Kings and queens were not the only people to inhabit castles; noblemen could also construct their own castles.
Castles were the main form of protection for most people living during the Medieval Period. The main purpose of the castle was for the defense of the inhabitants as well as the surrounding villagers. Kings and lords began to build castles on larger scales as a sign of their wealth and power. A castle could ward off an attacker simply by its presence. Because of their enormous size castles would strike fear into an enemy and gave security to those inside.
The first castles were built by the Normans in the late 10th to early 11th centuries. Castles were then introduced to England by William the Conqueror. He began building castles in England to protect and hold the land he had conquered. These first castles were called motte and bailey. These early castles were made of wood and usually consisted of a tower with a wooden wall or bailey surrounding the land...